Born a Fighter

Chapter 2

She woke to gentle warmth on her skin and a soft, cold, wind blowing on her face. She felt the silken sheets surrounding her, providing her with a cocoon of warmth. The room has a mild scent of freshly picked strawberries. Her eyes fluttered open and looked around the unfamiliar surroundings. Her thoughts traveled back to how she arrived there, but nothing came to her. She searched for any memory of why she was here, where she was or even who she was. Her heart rate quickened and her breathing became rough. She could remember only one thing, how to fight. She had memories of being punished, of being worked until she couldn't move, until she passed out on the ground. She knew how to fire a gun, she knew how to beat someone until an inch of death, she even knew how to survive without anything more than her wits. But nothing came to her when she thought of herself, who she was.

Her eyes drifted to a clipboard at the end of her bed. Reaching out her pale, delicate hand, she grabbed the cold plastic. Her hands shook as she flipped it around reading the printed writing. Her name and age was at the top of the page, in bold, black letters: Blake Matthews, age 16. She was interrupted by a small knock at the door, quickly she placed the clipboard back as it was then called for them to enter.

A woman in a black, tight dress walked in followed by an extremely large man. The woman looked at the man then flicked her eyes towards Blake. He nodded then walked over to Blake and grabbed her arms, pulling her roughly to her feet. Blake grunted with the surprising effort it took to keep herself upright despite the support from the mans strong grip. Her head spun and she felt weak, the man held tight to her arms preventing her from falling.

The woman walked out of the room and Blake and the man followed close. Her energy was drained with every pathetic step, she became tired and weary with each second on her feet. They walked briskly down a colourful hallway, it was cheerful but silent, empty. They entered a room with a completely different ambience to the previous surrounding. This room was cold and dull, like all the life has been sucked out of this room.

"Sit," the woman instructed in a cold, vicious voice. Blake was placed in a cold metal chair on one side of a desk, the woman sat opposite of her. Three women walked in the room wheeling in all sorts of machines, all three wearing nurses gowns. Without saying a word they proceeded to attach the machines, for some unknown reason she recognised these machines. They were lie detectors, these particular ones looked extremely advanced. Her mind went onto a stage of panic, mind racing with disturbing thoughts. Thoughts of what was going on, who they were. The woman that escorted her sat in the chair opposite.

"This works simply, tell the truth and you will be able to continue without a scratch, lie and you will be punished. As you have probably guessed, this is a lie detector so I suggest you tell us the truth." The woman's voice make Blake uncomfortable, she felt threatened.

"What is your name?"

"Blake Mathews," she answered without any hesitation or doubt. The woman looked surprised with her answer, clearly unaware of where her information had come from. She quickly masked it and her cold expression returned.

"Where did you hear that?" She asked, trying to hide the slight concern in her voice. Not the concern of the health of a person, but the selfish kind, as if Blake knowing her name would cause the woman great damage.

"The clipboard on the end of the bed," Blake answered careful to not show her confusion. The lady visibly relaxed, obviously relieved by the new information.

"What do you remember?" It was a simple question, on any normal person would have no trouble answering, she still had no answer to who she was or where she was.

"How to fight." The woman look satisfied at her answer, clearly not surprised that she didn't say who she was or where they were.

"Anything personal?" Blake hesitated, desperately trying to think of something, anything of herself. She slowly shook her head, disappointment settling through her body. The woman thinned her lips in an attempt at a smile.